


Ring a Ring o' Roses

by MissScorp



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Drama, F/M, Gen, Gil needs a hug, Grief, Pre-Series, character introspection, deals with Jackie’s loss, hurt but no real comfort, speculation on how Jackie died, squint and you see how Bright got Sunshine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:26:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25408387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissScorp/pseuds/MissScorp
Summary: Gil made a promise to Jackie: to take care of Bright.For Bad Things Happen Bingo, Take Me, Instead.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo/Jackie Arroyo
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Ring a Ring o' Roses

No matter how many times Gil begged God to take him, instead, he didn't.

No matter how often he got down on his knees and pleaded for Him to spare Jackie's life, he didn't.

Each and every one of his prayers fell on deaf ears.

He finally stopped reaching out for divine intervention.

Accepted it as part of some plan he wasn't meant to understand.

Stage 4 breast cancer, her doctor told them on that fateful sunny afternoon.

" _What does that mean_?" he had asked.

_"It means the cancer has metastasized_ ," was the answer.

No, it meant there was no cure, he wanted to tell him.

And little hope for survival.

It seemed surreal to Gil. Like it was happening to someone on television.

Not his warm, vibrant wife.

Her symptoms had not screamed cancer.

Headaches and nausea accompanied by pain and a sensitivity to light and sounds.

Symptoms of a migraine.

Jackie had a family history of those.

Her mother, grandmother, and one aunt all suffered migraines at Jackie's age.

That's what they thought it was.

A migraine.

Not stage 4 breast cancer.

Doctors gave her a year. Two, if she responded well to treatment.

Six months later, they adjusted Jackie's prognosis.

Gave her three months.

_Three_.

Measuring the length of her life in days and hours.

Jackie proved them wrong.

Showed them a Bronx girl didn't go down without a fight.

She made it those three months and three more.

Defying the odds.

Shocking her doctor.

Amazing her family who wanted every moment with her they could get.

Like fools, they started to believe she'd beat it.

That she'd be one of those in the twenty-two percent who'd make the estimated five year survival rate for those with stage 4 breast cancer.

Or, at the least, she'd be one of those who made it to three years.

They even started to believe she'd go into remission.

Then the rug got yanked out from beneath them on New Years Eve.

A grand mal seizure.

They'd been warned about that possibility.

Dealt with a few smaller ones leading up to Christmas.

This one, though, turned into the final straw.

A stroke as the city rang in the New Year with flutes of champagne and wild cheers.

Jackie held on long enough for Bright to get to the hospital.

A fighter to the end, his wife.

Never losing hope or faith.

Always with a warm smile and a teasing word.

Not letting her illness stop her from living her life or deprive her of being with the people she loved.

The Grim Reaper could damn well wait to reap her.

She wasn't leaving this Earth without telling her Bright-Boy goodbye.

Without giving him one more hug.

One more kiss on the forehead.

Telling him one final time how much she loved him.

She also refused to leave this world without giving the kid the little yellow budgie she ordered him to go out and buy as they waited for the kid's train to get in.

So Bright would have a little ray of sunshine in his life, she told him.

Something to remember her by.

_Like I have with Felix._

Gil's eyes strayed to the other end of the couch.

To the bundle of fur curled up in the jacket he tossed there after getting home. He remembered how the black kitten ended up becoming part of their cat family.

He and Jackie had been taking a walk when they saw some neighborhood kids throwing rocks at a straggly kitten. Without giving him a chance to pull his badge, Jackie marched up to them kids and read them the riot act.

The hint of a smile curved his lips as he recalled the shame-filled expressions on their faces after she got done with them.

That was the sort of woman his Jackie was.

Fierce as a lioness.

Afraid of nothing.

Not even the Grim Reaper.

Gil's hand trembled around the half-full tumbler of bourbon.

The one he poured after he got back from the funeral home.

From making sure the arrangements Jackie made after her diagnosis were being done just as she requested.

He had yet to take a sip of the smoky liquor.

He told himself he needed the warm, soothing benefit that came from the ambler-colored liquid while he poured it, but the truth was, he didn't.

Alcohol wouldn't bring Jackie back.

Nothing could bring her back.

She was gone.

_Ashes!_

_Ashes!_

_We all fall down._

He couldn't fall down, though.

Much as he craved the oblivion the bottom of the bottle set before promised, he knew he couldn't allow himself to crawl into those golden depths.

He promised Jackie he'd take care of Bright.

Make sure the kid got through the funeral without spiraling into a deep, dark place.

That included putting the kid they informally adopted as their own on a train and shipping him back to the bureau so he could continue hunting down men and women like his father.

Martin Whitly.

The man who tried to turn his son into a child-murderer.

Anger coursed through Gil.

Mingled with his grief.

His hate.

Whitly traumatized Bright to the point he hadn't been able to speak for months after his arrest.

Barely ate.

Hardly slept because of his nightmares.

Who needed a cocktail of drugs to keep the demons and ghosts at bay.

Who couldn't form friendships with his peers because his ability to trust had been so badly broken.

Who denied himself happiness because he didn't believe he deserved it.

Who couldn't commit to a woman because he didn't want to dump his issues onto them.

Gil's fingers clenched on the glass, hard enough his knuckles popped, and the glass itself cracked, but, thankfully, didn't splinter in his hand.

He promised Jackie he'd take care of Bright.

See him reach his full potential.

Overcome his past.

Have a bright future.

Gil never let her down in all the years they were married.

He wasn't about to start now.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, all, and welcome! This is a bit of a character introspection occurring in the wake of Jackie's death. It's pure speculation at this point about what she died from but given Gil still wore his wedding ring three years later, I think it safe to say it was one that left him floundering.
> 
> This is also for my Bad Things Happen Bingo square, Take Me, instead.
> 
> Please, if you like this piece, favorite/kudo it! Thanks for reading! Take care!


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